HurbleBurble wrote:
First off, level scaling. GTFO. For a balanced world there needs to be things that are weak and things that are strong. It gives a sense of progression, of a character evolving and for attributes and exploration to actually have a point.

I'm not convinced of that anymore to be honest. I hated the scaled levels in Oblivion with a passion but I like the Skyrim approach, although it can do with further refining.
If scaling's not purely linear proportional to the player's level and not equally distributed across the land I think it can work just fine.

I do see benefits to not having purely fixed level NPC's in a large, open world now.
For instance: certain fights being epic no matter what level you are rather than having to funnel players into linear progression at specific points to ensure their level is capped when they engage those enemies.
Through their rose-tinted glasses older players don't tend to see it anymore but the latter's exactly what classics like Baldur's Gate did.

I used to be dead-set against TES multiplayer but having gone back to Skyrim after long stint of Minecraft, it's got me thinking more about it.

Let's say you have 4-8 friends in a game. Quests can only be performed once, making competition. A host could lock certain questlines for themselves (eg lock main quest, leave guild lines open to others) and set certain other parameters.

Main reason I'd want multiplayer function is for more purpose to specialisations. I can make level 100 blacksmith improvements, mate might make level 100 enchantments. Thing is, I'm making these items and naturally I want to give them to party members or other players.

The only way it could work well though would be to have servers and small numbers of players.